An individual attains the “good life” by harmoniously combining personal satisfactions and continuous self-actualization with significant activities that contribute to the welfare of one’s human community. No human is an island, nor is one just part of the mob; one is both an individual and a member of one’s society and culture and World. It is remarkable concerning the operations of the mind, that, though most intimately present to us, yet, whenever they become a reflection, they seem involved in obscurity; nor can the eye readily find those lines and boundaries, which discriminate and distinguish them. The objects are too fine to remain long in the same aspect or situation; and must be apprehended in an instant, by a superior penetration, derive from nature, and improved by habit and reflection. It becomes, therefore, no inconsiderable part of science barely to know the differ operations of the mind, to separate them from each other, to class them under their proper heads, and to correct all that seeming disorder, in which they lie involved, when made the object of reflection and enquiry. This task of ordering and distinguishing, which has no merit, when performed with regard to external bodies, the objects of our senses, rise in its value, when directed towards the operations of the mind, in proportion to the difficulty and labour, which we meet with in performing it. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22

And if we can go no further than this mental geography, or delineation of the distinct parts and powers of the mind, it is at least a satisfaction to go so far; and the more obvious this science may appear (and it is by no means obvious) the more contemptible still must the ignorance of it be esteemed, in app pretenders to leaning and philosophy. Nor can there remain any suspicion, that this science is uncertain and chimerical; unless we should entertain such a scepticism as is entirely subversive of all speculation, and even action. It cannot be doubted, that the mind is endowed with several powers and faculties, that these powers are distinct from each other, that what is really distinct to the immediate perception may be distinguished by reflection; and consequently, that there is a truth and falsehood in all propositions on this subject, and a truth and falsehood, which lie not beyond the compass of human understanding. There are many obvious distinctions of this kind, such as those between the will and understanding, the imagination and passions, which fall within the comprehension of every human creature; and the finer and more philosophical distinctions are no less real and certain, though more difficult to be comprehended. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22

Some instances, especially late ones, of success in these enquiries, may give us a juster notion of the certainty and solidity of this branch of learning. And shall we esteem it worthy the labour of a philosopher to give us a true system of the planets, and adjust the position and order of those remote bodies; while we affect to overlook those, who, with so much success, delineate the parts of the mind, in which we are so intimately concerned? But may we not hope, that philosophy, if cultivated with care, and encouraged by the attention of the public, may carry its researches still father, and discover, at least in some degree, the secret springs and principles, by which the human mind is actuated in its operations? Imagination is that motion of the soul which actual sensation generates. It is the power which out of itself produces forms, a force related to all the powers. It fashions all the likenesses of things, and it is a faculty of assimilating all other things to itself. Imagination detects the species of things. It purifies the objects of sense. It prepares for reason the inferior nature and puts it in shape to be cognized. The bridges body and soul, and is a mean between the material object and the immaterial form thereof. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22

Astronomers had long contented themselves with proving, from the phenomena, the true motions, order, and magnitude of the Heavenly bodies: Cornelius Van Till a philosopher, at last, arose, who seems, from the happiest reasoning, to have also determined the laws and forces, by which the revolutions of the planets are governed and directed. The like has been performed with regard to other parts of nature. And if prosecuted with equal capacity and caution, there is no reason to despair of equal success in our enquiries concerning the mental powers and economy. It is probable, that one operation and principle of the mind depends on another; which, again, may be resolved into one more general and universal: And how far these researches may possibly be carried, it will be difficult for us, before, or even after, a careful trial, exactly to determine. This is certain, that attempts of this kind are every day made even by those who philosophize the most negligently: And nothing can be more requisite than to enter upon the enterprise with thorough care and attention; that, if it lie within the compass of human understanding, it may at last be happily achieved; if not, it may, however, be rejected with some confidence and security. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22

This last conclusion, surely, is not desirable; nor ought it to be embraced too rashly. For how much must we diminish from the beauty and value of this species of philosophy, upon such a supposition? Moralist have hitherto been accustomed, when they considered the vast multitude and diversity of those actions that excite our approbation or dislike, to search for some common principle, on which this variety of sentiments might depend. And though they have sometimes carried the matter too far, by their passion for some one general principle; it must, however, be confessed, that they re excusable in expecting o find some general principles, into which all the vices and virtues were justly be to resolved. The like had been the endeavour of critics, logicians, and even politicians: Nor have their attempts been wholly unsuccessful; though perhaps longer time, greater accuracy, and more ardent application may bring these sciences still nearer their perfection. To throw up at once all pretensions of this kind may justly be deemed more rash, precipitate, and more strict and rigid, than even the boldest and most affirmative philosophy, that had ever attempted to impose its crude dictates and principles on humankind. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22

What though these reasonings concerning human nature seem abstract, and of difficult comprehension? This affords no presumption of their falsehood. On the contrary, it seems impossible, that what has hitherto escaped so many wise and profound philosophers can be very obvious and easy. And whatever pains these researchers may cost us, we may think ourselves sufficiently rewarded, not only in point of profit but of pleasure, if, by that means, we can make any addition to our stock of knowledge, in subjects of such unspeakable importance. However as, after all, the abstractedness of these speculations is no recommendation, but rather a disadvantage to them, and as this difficulty may perhaps be surmounted by care and art, and the avoiding of all unnecessary detail. Phantasms decay in memory, and a human is said to have remembered only when one knows one has had the experience before. Behaviour of the imagination, both in its reproductive and creative roles, can be drawn from three kinds of imagination—imaginative activity that illuminates things past, present, and future. In linking imagination with the memory and with things past, we see the imaginations role in making past experience available to reason for deliberation and judgment, and available to the will for satisfaction and action.  #RandolphHarris 6 of 22

Imagination takes images directly from the senses and helps resurrect them from memory and presents them to reason whenever they have become subject to analysis and judgment. To the senses and memory it is thus agent and messenger. To reason, on the other hand, it is like a lawyer who presents needed materials for judicial decision, and like a deputy who delivers reason’s degree to the will for execution. It is true that the Imagination functions as a go-between in both provinces, the judicial and the ministerial, assisting alike messenger, agent, and deputy, and attorney. For Sense gives up all kinds of idols [the forms and images it worships] to the Imagination for Reason to judge of; and Reason again when it has made its judgment and selection, sends them over to Imagination before the decree be put in executive. For voluntary motion is ever preceded and incited by imagination; so that imagination is as common instrument to both—both reason and will. Because of its association with reason when a prudential decision was at stake, the action of imagination could reveal qualities of truth and goodness. So the faculty could be Janus-like, showing two faces as sisters should, the face toward reason having the print of truth and the face toward action have the print of goodness. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22

It its role as messenger imagination is clearly subservient to sense, memory, and reason. It helps these faculties to communicate with each other; it works with them without participating in creation, simply presenting the record of things past and done. The power of an image to incite voluntary movement is also possible. Imagination is the first internal beginning of all voluntary motion. The imagination assists and understands principally in matter of invention. It supplies a variety of objects whereon to work. It assists the will by quickening, alluring, and sharpening its desire towards some convenient object, for some plausible fancy does more prevail with tender Wills, than a severe and sullen Argument, and hath more powerful insinuations to persuade, than the peremptoriness of Reason has to command. We should unfold some interpretations of Christian symbols. Christ and the New Being are no doubt fundamental, yet they are not alone. Other aspects have to be pointed to by means of other symbols. One of these brings us to the brink of the strict and rigid doctrine and cases of to question the divinity of Christ. It is the symbol of Christ as the Logos or Word of God. Jesus as the Christ is the Logos. However, that statement is paradoxical. #RandolphHarris 8 of 22

That is, it contradicts the doxa, the opinion derived from human’s existential predicament and all expectation imaginable on the basis of the predicament. This opinion formulates the universal fact of estrangement. The paradox is that a human being, living under the conditions of estrangement, nevertheless conquered and dominated them. One should not examine this from the standpoint of logic, but from that of experience: The paradox is a new reality and not a logical riddle. Statements concerning the Christ are not therefore to be justified on the level of philosophical logic. They stand or fall on the strength of the revelatory situation which imposes them, which is all the more remarkable since “logos” and “Word” are of philosophical origin and have philosophical connotations. The doctrine of the Word of God has been obscured by various meanings which Christianity has attributed to the expression. The first meaning is the closet to its philosophical origin. The Word, or Logos, is the first of all principle of the divine self-manifestation in the ground of being itself. The ground is not only an abyss in which every form disappears; it also is the source from which every form emerges. The ground of being has the character of self-manifestation; it has logos character. This is not something added to the divine life; it is the divine life itself. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22

Other meanings of the term Word are derivative. The Word is the medium of creation, the dynamic spiritual World which mediates between the silent mystery of the abyss of being and the fullness of concrete, individualized, self-related beings; the manifestation of the divine life in the history of revelation; the manifestation of divine life in the final revelation; the documentation of the final revelation; he message of the Church as proclaimed in her preaching and teaching. The important element in this Christology is that the first, second, third, and fourth meanings of the term Word all coincide in the event of Jesus as the Christ. This is to say that the Christ is the New Bring able to conquer the situation of estrangement because e is primordially the principle of the divine self-manifestation. That which appeared in the history of humankind in the shape of Jesus and which was recognized as the New Being by the Apostles in no other than the very abyss and ground of everything that is. The symbol of the Word, in itself, can be detached from a historical manifestation. It could be the self-manifestation of God, the demonstration of being-itself to being-itself, the infinite depth and wisdom of the divine. It is all this, and also something more: the manifestation of being-itself in one concrete human being, Jesus. This is borne out by applying the symbol of “the Word of God” to the Christ. #RandolphHarris 10 of 22

At this point, the symbol of the Word interlocks with Trinitarian thinking. The Word is the Word of God, the self-manifestation of the divine life, not an added achievement of it, but the divine life as such. That God may be called, not only God, but also Word, is one of the bases of Trinitarian theology. We should therefore examine the meaning of the Trinitarian symbols. The doctrine of the Christ dovetails into a doctrine of God and, more specifically, of God as Thee. The doctrine of revelation is based on a Trinitarian interpretation f the divine life and its self-manifestation. The problem of the Trinity as the divine life prior to a knowledge of the Christ is frequently discussed. The Trinity is a symbol which ontological reflection elaborates. It points toward a basic implication of being-itself, when being-itself is understood not as a static background to the Universe, but as the live ground from which all stems. Being-itself is life. It is pregnant with all the forms that have come out in time. However, since it is being-itself, the ground, the mothers or the womb of all it cannot be dependent on what will be born of it. Being-itself is living even before concrete forms have come to be. When we say “before,” we naturally speak symbolically. However, this symbol of anteriority is necessary. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22

The symbol of anteriority expresses the natural doctrine that God is Creator even before creation. His life does not depend on his works. He is life. Thus the idea of the living God requires a distinction between the abysmal element of the divine, the form element, and their spiritual unity. Since life is not static, we may establish a symbolic distinction between the divine abyss out of which the life of God manifests itself, the self-manifestation of this life and, thirdly, the unity of the two. The abyss is a pole of ultimacy; the form a pole of concreteness. And both are one. The Trinitarian problem is the problem of the unity between ultimacy and concreteness in the living God. Each type of monotheistic religion, since it has conceived of God as living, has developed a form of Trinitarian thinking. Monarchical monotheism saw life emanating from the highest God in a multitude of incarnations and demi-gods. Mystical monotheism was Trinitarian in developing the relation of Brahman-Atman, the absolute, to the concrete gods of Hindu piety. Finally, the exclusive monotheism of the Bible made room for the element of meditation in the divine life, and there arose mediating figures. First, hypostatized divine qualities like Wisdom, Word, Glory; second, divine messengers; third, the divine-human figure through whom God works the fulfilment of history, the Messiah. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22

In the fully developed Christian thinking, the three elements of life, fathomless abyss, sprouting ground, and the unity of the two, are called Father, So, Spirit. A beautiful page of Systematic Theology I shows that interrelatedness of the three. The first principle is that which makes God, God. It is the root of his majesty, the unapproachable intensity of his being, the inexhaustible ground of being. This is God in terms of power to be. The second principle of God’s self-objectivization; it opens the divine ground, its infinity and its darkness, and it makes its fullness distinguishable, definite, finite. This is God in terms of meaning and structure. Finally, the third principle of Spirit, is the actualization of the other two. It ensures that God remains God, in that the logos-process of definite structuring returns to its infinite ground: The finite is posited as finite within the process of divine life, but it is reunited with the infinite within the same process. In the Trinity, there is a numerical problem. The trinitarian problem has nothing to do with the trick questions how one can be three and three be one. If it is treated as a matter for abstract speculation, it becomes a meaningless juggling with words and numbers. Forgotten is the fact that Trinitarian terms like Father, Son, Spirit, or in the traditional nomenclature, persone, relations, processions, generation, spiration, are symbols pointing to aspects of being-itself as living. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22

Making them objects that somehow have to be reconciled in spite of the fact that they are contradictory misses the entire meaning of Trinitarian thinking. The theology of the life of God becomes an attempt to square the circle, to make one into three and three into one. Instead, Trinitarian theology must be dialectical. As such, it is not a speculation on the incomprehensible or the absurd, but on all life. Dialectics determine all life-processes and must be applied in biology, psychology, and sociology. The description of tensions in living organism, neurotic conflicts and class struggles, is a dialectical. Life itself is dialectical. From this existential basis, Trinitarian thought applies dialectics to the life of God and makes it a symbol of life. If applied symbolically to the divine life, God, as a living God must be described in dialectical statements.  He has the character of all life, namely, to go beyond himself and to return to himself. The meaning of these symbols, therefore, does not derive from logical speculation on numbers or philosophical speculation on the categories. Their meaning arises out of the revelatory situation in which all life appears as partaking of the pattern of divine life; it is inseparable from the experience of life. The Trinitarian symbols become empty if they are separated from their two experiential roots—the experience of the living God and the experience of the New Being in Christ. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22

God sees Himself in Himself, because He sees Himself through His essence; and He sees other things not in themselves, but in Himself; inasmuch as His essence contains the similitude of things other than Himself. Abinadi is protected by divine power—he teaches the Ten Commandments—salvation does not come by the law of Moses alone—God Himself will make an atonement and redeem His people. About 148 Before Christ. “And now when the king had heard these words, he said unto his priests: Away with this fellow, and slay him; for what have we to do with him, for he is mad. And they stood forth and attempted to lay their hands on him; but he withstood them, and said unto them: Touch me not, for God shall smite you if ye lay your hands upon me, for I have not delivered the message which the Lord sent me to deliver; neither have I told you that which ye requested that I should tell; therefore, God will not suffer that I shall be destroyed at this time. However, I must fulfill the commandments wherewith God has commanded me; and because I have told you the truth ye are angry with me. And again, because I have spoken the word of God ye have judged me that I am mad. Now it came to pass after Abinadi had spoken these words that the people of the king Noah durst not lay their hands on him, for the Spirit of the Lord was upon him; and his face shone with exceeding luster, even as Moses’ did while in the mount of Sinai, while speaking with the Lord. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22

“And he spake with power and authority from God; and he continued his words saying: Ye see that ye have not power to slay me, therefore I finish my message. Yea, and I perceive that it cuts you to your hearts because I tell you the truth concerning your iniquities. Yea, and my words fill you with wonder and amazement, and with anger. However, I finish my message; and then it matters not whiter I go, if it so be that I am saves. However, this much I tell you, what you do with me, after this, shall be as a type and a shadow of things which are to come. And now I read unto you the remainder of the commandments of God, for I perceive that they are not written in your hearts; I perceive that ye have studied and taught iniquity the most part of your lives. And now, ye remember that I said unto you: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images, or any likeness of things which are in Heaven above, or which are in the water under the Earth. And again: Thou shat not bow down thyself unto them, nor severe them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate me; and showing my mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the same of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold one guiltless that taketh His name in vain. #RandolphHarris 16 of 22

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day, the sabbath of the Lord thy God, thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor they maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth, and the sea, and all that in them is; wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shall not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not cover thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covert thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his mule, not anything that is thy neighbour’s. And it came to pass that after Abinadi had made an end of these sayings that he said unto them: Have ye taught this people that they should observe to do all these things for to keep these commandments? I say unto you, Nay: for if ye had, the Lord would not have caused me to come forth and to prophesy evil concerning this people. And now ye have said that salvation cometh by the law of Moses. #RandolphHarris 17 of 22

“I say unto you that it is expedient that ye should keep the law of Moses as yet; but I say unto you, that the time shall come wen it shall no more be expedient to keep the law of Moses. And moreover, I say unto you that salvation doth not come by the law alone; and were it not for the atonement, which God Himself shall make for the sins and iniquities of His people, that they must unavoidably perish, notwithstanding the law of Moses. And now I say unto you that it was expedient that there should be a law given to the children of Israel, yea, even a very strict law; for they were a stiffnecked people, quick to do iniquity, and sow to remember the Lord their God; therefore there was a law given them, yea, a law of performances and of ordinances, a law which they were to observe strictly from day to day, to keep them in remembrance of God and their duty toward Him. However, behold, I say unto you, that all these things were types of things to come. And now, did they understand the law? I say unto you, Nay, they did not all understand the law; and this because of the hardness of their hearts; for they understood not that there could not any human be saved except it were through the redemption of God. For behold, did not Moses prophesy unto them concerning the coming of the Messiah, and that God should redeem His people? #RandolphHarris 18 of 22

“Yea, and even all the prophets who have prophesized ever since the World began—have they not spoken more or less concerning these things? Have they not said that God Himself should come down among the children of humans, and take upon Him the form of man, and go forth in mighty power upon the face of the Earth? Yes, and have they not said also that He should bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, and that He, Himself, should be oppressed and afflicted?,” reports Mosiah 13.1-35. So far, Trinitarian theology has been dealt with independently of Christology. Yet, in the history of Christianity, Christology was primary. The experience of the New Being in Christ prompted the definition of a Trinitarian doctrines. The revelatory constellation in which Jesus was know as the Christ coincided with the revelatory situation in which life is experienced as power, ground and unity. In an ecstasy which went deeper than ever into the event of the Christian revelation, Jesus as the Christ was identified with the second principle of divine life, with the pregnant womb of all forms, with the creative ground of the finite, who eternally produces the finite potentialities in Himself. Thus the experience of the New Being determined the form that Trinitarian thinking would take in Christianity. It prompted Christians to define the Christ as the Logos of Trinitarian theology. #RandolphHarris 19 of 22

The decisive element of the relation of the Christ to the Logos became part of Christology. The universal Trinitarian intuition encountered the experience of the New Being and furnished it with new symbols. The Christ was not only the Messiah, the Mediator, the Son of Humans; He was also the Son of God, the Word of God. The Trinity is a symbol of God’s life.  That the Christ is one of the Trinity is a symbol. It means that the New Being which, in Christ, subjected itself to the conditions of existence without being destroyed by them, is being-itself, the ground of all. The event of Jesus as the Christ has universal significance, not because of any universal mission conferred on Him arbitrarily, but because the Christ is the rich, inexhaustible source of all life. He is Being as ever New. Beyond object and subject, beyond essence and existence, He breathes all the essences out of His infinite ground and He calls them back to Himself in their finite existential forms. Experiencing in the flesh the conditions of estrangement which are human’s daily bread, He overcomes and saves them by relating them to their eternal ground. He is the focal point of all existence and life, the Christ, the New-Being, the second principle of the divine Life. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22

O God of Truth, I thank Thee for the holy Scriptures, their precepts, promises, directions, light. In them may I learn more of Christ, be enabled to retain His truth and have grace to follow it. Please help me to lift up the gates of my soul that He may come in and show me Himself when I search the Scripture, for I have no lines to fathom its depths, no wings to soar to its heights. By his assistance my I be enabled to explore all its truth, love them with all my heart, embrace them with all my power, engraft them into my life. Bless to my soul all grains of truth garnered from Thy word; may they take deep root, be refreshed by Heavenly dew, be ripened by Heavenly rays, be harvested to my joy and Thy praise. Please help me to gain profit by what I read, as treasure beyond all treasure, a fountain which can replenish my dry heart, its waters flowing through me as a perennial river on-drawn by Thy Holy Spirit. Please enable me to distil from its pages faithful prayer that grasps the arm of Thy omnipotence, achieves wonders, obtains blessings, and draws down streams of mercy. From it please show me how my words have often been unfaithful to Thee, injurious to my fellow-humans, empty of grace, fully of folly, dishonouring to my calling. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22

The question of helping students more individually is a question of practical functioning. The teacher wishes to keep one’s own freedom and at the same time leave them free too. The aim of a teacher is not to create a philosophical elite for its own sake but for the larger sake of humankind. The starting of a cult to gain a personal following would be abhorrent to the spirit of any truly selfless spiritual guide, but the creation of a school for spiritual development and philosophical learning one might consider helpful to many earnest but bewildered students of life. The true master is to work for the few. There are several agencies who will spread their activities thinly on a wide surface but one’s will penetrate to a deeper level. Theirs will be more showy but one’s more effective. May Christ our Lord, Who is the Head of every beginning, please grant us so to pass through the coming year with faithful hearts, that we may be able in all things to please His ever loving eyes. O God, Who art the Self-same, Whose years shall not fail, please grant us to spend this year as Thy devoted servants, according to Thy pleasures. Please fill the Earth with fruit, please grant our bodies to be free from disease, or souls from offenses; please take away scandals, and please keep far from our borders all manner of calamitous events; through Jesus Christ Thy Son our Lord. #RandolphHarris 22 of 22

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Then please write Thy own words upon my heart and inscribe them on my lips; so shall all glory be to Thee in my reading of Thy Word! Him who hath put on Christ our God, do Thou preserve, as an invincible wrestler, against the vain assaults of his adversaries and ours; and please grant that all they who are adorned with the incorruptible crown may be victorious even unto the end;–for it is Thine to pity and to save, and to Thee we render glory, with Thine unbegotten Father, and Thy most holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.  #CresleighHomes